On this day: August 23

2011: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown after rebel forces take control of his Bab al-Azizia compound during the 2011 Libyan civil war. He would eventually be captured and killed by rebels on Oct. 20, 2011.

2011: A 5.8 earthquake occurs in Mineral, Virginia, with the quake felt as far north as Ontario and as far south as Atlanta, Georgia. The resulting damage, including that done to buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C., was estimated at between $200 million and $300 million. Pictured are workers inspecting the outside of the Washington Monument, which was closed indefinitely after being damaged in the earthquake. It reopened on May 12, 2014.

2010: Golfer Tiger Woods' divorce from Elin Nordegren is finalized in the Bay County Circuit Court in Panama City, Florida.

2007: The skeletal remains of Alexei Nikolaevich (third from right), Tsarevich of Russia, and one of his sisters, either Anastasia (second from left) or Maria (far right), are found near Yekaterinburg, Russia. He was murdered alongside his parents, four sisters, and three retainers during the Russian Civil War by order of the Bolshevik government, though rumors that he and other family members had survived persist today.

2002: Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Hoyt Wilhelm, recognized as the first pitcher to save 200 games in his career and the first pitcher to appear in 1,000 games, dies at age 80 in Sarasota, Florida. One of the oldest players to have pitched in the major-leagues, last pitching just 16 days short of his 50th birthday, he retired in 1972 with the lowest career earned run average of any major-league hurler after 1927 who pitched more than 2,000 innings. Wilhelm pitched for 10 different teams in his career, earning an All-Star berth eight times and winning a World Series title with the New York Giants in 1954.

1994: Eugene Bullard, one of two known black combat pilots in World War I, is posthumously commissioned as second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

1993: The Los Angeles Police Department formally announces that Michael Jackson is the subject a criminal investigation after accusations of child molestation from a 13-year-old boy. The investigation was inconclusive and no charges were ever filed. The singer's insurance carrier later came to a $22 million out-of-court settlement with the boy's family.

1990: Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western "guests" (actually hostages), including 5-year-old Stuart Lockwood, to try to prevent the Gulf War.

1982: Natalie Coughlin, the swimmer and 12-time Olympic medalist, is born in Vallejo, California. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she became the first U.S. female athlete in modern Olympic history to win six medals in one Olympiad, winning a gold, two sivers and three bronze medals.

1978: Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who has won five NBA tites in his career, is born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1976: Actor Scott Caan, the son of fellow actor James Caan best known for his TV roles on "Entourage" and "Hawaii Five-0," is born in Los Angeles, California.

1973: A bank robbery gone wrong in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis. Over the next five days, the hostages began to sympathize with their captors, leading to the term "Stockholm syndrome." Pictured is the building where the bank, Kreditbanken, was located in Stockholm's Norrmalmstorg square.

1971: The original Shamu, SeaWorld orca, dies at SeaWorld San Diego. She was the first orca to survive more than 13 months in captivity and the fourth ever captured. After her death, the name Shamu continued to be used in SeaWorld orca shows.

1970: More than 5,000 workers belonging to the United Farm Workers strike against growers in California's Salinas Valley in what becomes known as the "Salad Bowl" strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history. The strike, organized by Mexican-American union leader Cesar Chavez (pictured), disrupted shipments of fresh lettuce nationwide and caused the price of lettuce to double almost overnight. It also led directly to the passage of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Act in 1975, which established collective bargaining for the state's farmworkers.

1970: Actor and comedian Jay Mohr, best known for his roles in the TV series "Action," "Ghost Whisperer" and "Gary Unmarried," and in the Tom Cruise movie "Jerry Maguire," is born in Verona, New Jersey.

1970: Actor River Phoenix ("Stand By Me," "My Own Private Idaho," "Running on Empty") is born in Madras, Oregon. Phoenix, seen here at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989, died of drug-induced heart failure outside the West Hollywood nightclub The Viper Room on Oct. 31, 1993, at the age of 23. He earned Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role in 1988's "Running on Empty."

1966: Lunar Orbiter 1 takes the first photograph of Earth from orbit around the moon.

1963: The Beatles release the single "She Loves You" in the United Kingdom, smashing British sales records. The song would eventually spend a total of six weeks on top of the British charts and became the Beatles' all-time best-selling single in the UK.

1960: Lyricist and playwright Oscar Hammerstein II dies of stomach cancer at the age of 65 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Hammerstein won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards in his career and is best known for his collaborations with composer Richard Rodgers, including "Oklahoma!," "The King and I," "South Pacific" and "The Sound of Music."

1954: A prototype of the C-130 Hercules transport aircraft flies for the first time in Burbank, California.

1949: Actress Shelley Long, best known for playing Diane Chambers on the sitcom "Cheers," is born in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. She's also known for movies like "The Money Pit," "Outrageous Fortune," "Troop Beverly Hills" and "The Brady Bunch Movie."

1949: Singer and actor Rick Springfield, best known for his hit "Jessie's Girl," is born in South Wentworthville, a western suburb of Sydney, Australia.

1946: Keith Moon, who would go on to become the drummer for The Who before his untimely death in 1978, is born in Wembley, Middlesex, England.

1934: "I Dream of Jeannie" star Barbara Eden is born in Tucson, Arizona.

1930: Actress Vera Miles, best known for playing Lila Crane in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," is born Vera June Ralston in Boise City, Oklahoma. Miles is also known for the movies "The Wrong Man," "The Searchers," "Follow Me Boys!" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance."

1927: After a controversial trial and a series of appeals, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery.

1926: Silent film star Rudolph Valentino dies at age 31, eight days after collapsing at the Hotel Ambassador in New York City and undergoing surgery for appendicitis and gastric ulcers. Although his initial prognosis was promising, on Aug. 21 he developed pleuritis, an inflammation of the lining of the pleural cavity surrounding his left lung, which led to his death.

1921: The British airship R-38 experiences structural failure over Hull, England, and crashes in the shallow waters of the Humber estuary. Of her 49 British and American training crew, only five survived.

1912: Actor and dancer Gene Kelly, the star of movies such as "Singin' in the Rain," "Anchors Aweigh," "On the Town" and "An American in Paris," is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Kelly, who also served as co-director with Stanley Donen on "Singin' in the Rain," "On the Town" and "It's Always Fair Weather" and directed several other movies on his own, most notably 1969's "Hello, Dolly!," died of complications from a stroke at age 83 on Feb. 2, 1996.

1904: Harry D. Weed, the inventor of tire chains, receives U.S. Patent No. 768,495 for his "Grip-Tread for Pneumatic Tires."

1784: Western North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee) declares itself an independent state under the name of Franklin. It wasn't accepted into the United States, and only lasted for four years.

1775: In response to news of the Battle of Bunker Hill at the outset of the American Revolutionary War, England's King George III declares that the American colonies exist in a state of open and avowed rebellion.

1754: King Louis XVI of France is born in the Palace of Versailles, France.

1305: Sir William Wallace, one of Scotland's main leaders during the Wars of Scottish Independence, is executed for high treason at Smithfield in London.

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